Phosgene mortar shells filled

The plant, which cost 35.5 million—a complex of 15 miles of roads, 36 miles of railroad track, waterworks and power plants and 550 buildings for the manufacture of chlorine, phosgene, chlorpicrin, sulfur chloride and mustard gas—was completed in less than a year. Ten thousand military and civilian workers staffed it By the end of the war it was capable of filling 1.1 million 75-mm gas shells a month as well as several million other sizes and types of shells, grenades, mortar bombs and projector drums. 

Whilst the majority of the recovered munitions are of WWII origin, a significant number stem from WWI and the inter-war years. They include shells, mortars and grenades of various types filled with a range of toxic chemical substances, including arsenious chloride, chloropicrin (trichloronitromethane), KSK (ethyl iodoacetate), phosgene (carbonyl chloride), and thickened and un-thickened sulphur mustard (principally bis 2,2 dichloroethyl sulphide). When found, the munitions are normally heavily corroded and often little, if any, indication of their probable contents remains. 

The Japanese also used mustard for filling shells and bombs, primarily as a 50 50 mixture with Lewisite to lower the freezing point. Examples of Japanese chemical munitions are Artillery shells, 150 mm and 105 mm and Mortar rounds 90 mm, filled with either mustard gas /Lewisite mixture or diphenylcyanoarsine, and Artillery shells 75 mm filled with either phosgene or diphenylcyanoarsine. In addition there were 15 kg and 60 kg aerial bombs, toxic smoke candles and canisters filled with diphenylcyanoarsine. [12] Japan is estimated to have produced a total of around 1.7 million CW bombs and shells, and 5.7 million chemical candles and grenades. One source quotes the total amount of chemical munitions produced by Japan, regardless of agent fill, as approximately 7.4 million.[20] As already stated in an earlier paragraph, Chinese sources estimate that approximately 2 million of these rounds were abandoned in Northern China.[7]... 

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